3 hour time change and a one year old--advice please

[KMH1]

We're flying from Ohio to California in May for a 5 day trip to DL!

We already took DD to WDW in October, so I'm confident that she'll handle the trip fine, but I am worried about how she'll adapt to the time change. (She'll be 13 months old on this trip.)

Does anyone have experience with this?

Our flight leaves Ohio at 7 p.m. Alyssa usually goes to bed between 8-9 p.m. Do you think we should keep her awake as long as we can?

Or should we let her sleep on the plane and wake her up for a few hours when we land in CA? Then put her back to bed when we check into the DL Hotel.

Thanks!
Amy

 

[AFMom]

I would let her sleep on the plane if she falls asleep. If she will be in her car seat on the plane, you'll have a very hard time keeping her awake and you'll all be miserable! You'll be surprised at how well she handles the time difference, and you'll be wearing her out ar DL - so getting her to bed earlier at night on Pacific time shouldn't be too hard! My kids hardly noticed the time changes when we went from FL to CA for 10 days when they were tiny. Good luck!

 

[hambirg]

My youngest was 21 months when we went to WDW. We flew from Washington state on a red eye. I would say to let her sleep on the plane and then if she needs more sleep to let her sleep at the hotel. Chances are you might want to stretch out and take a nap too. We did on our trip to WDW. We hit Illuminations that night and then back to the hotel and to sleep. We all seemed acclimated to the new time by morning. I'm sure the excitement helped. Good luck

 

[Judy from Boise]

you may want to consider slipping her a dose of tylenol or benadryl if she is actually too "wired" to go to sleep, but only consider this if she has had the medicine before, and you know it works!

 

[momzilla59]

It's a lot easier to get used to the time change when you go west! You may find that keeping on your local schedule works for you. Our first trip to WDW I tried to get everyone to adjust to the local time and boy we WE all cranky! The second trip I kept my watch set to Our time and we had it much easier!

 

[spendleb]

We flew from the UK to Orlando with an 18 month old, think the time difference was something like 8 hours but he was fine, we just kept him going to what would be his bedtime in the UK (although it was actually about 2am back in the UK!) and he took straight to it and we never had any bother, maybe I was just lucky!

 

[Stinasmom]

I took my DD5 and DS1 to Hawaii a few years ago...3-4 hour time change from west coast (depending on daylight savings...can't remember). They both would fall asleep by 6pm and get up around 3:30am! It took 3 days to ease them into a regular schedule! Watching Teletubbies for 3 hours trying to keep them quiet until others got up, ACK!
We have also gone east to WDW at varying ages...this was easier. I will admit that being busy at the parks and all the activity will likely excite and tire a child out more making it easier to shift time zones. Also, having a good stroller for naps is a must! Good luck and have a great time!